Australia's department of immigration has confirmed that the first group of families has been transferred to Nauru under the government's controversial new regional resettlement plan.

A flight from Christmas Island made up of 14 adults and 12 children in seven family groups, all of whom are Iranian, arrived in Nauru on Wednesday morning. The group has been transferred to a new temporary facility away from the island's other centre holding single adult males, with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (Diac) being unable to elaborate on when the groups would be transferred to permanent facilities.

The tent accommodation was described by Diac as "vinyled marquees" with "vinyled partitions for family groups" and "wooden flooring and ceiling fans". Diac says it will move towards making the partitions "hard walls" and will install "slide screened windows" in the future, but was unable to say when this work would take place. The department added that there was no plan to install air conditioning.

A partially constructed large marquee on the regional processing centre at Nauru. Family groups transferred to Nauru on Wednesday will be housed in similar, completed marquees until permanent accommodation is available

The transfer took place following a major fire, which destroyed a quarter of the Nauru's main hospital, including the island's main medicine reserves. A spokeswoman for Diac said the fire had had "minimal impact" on primary medical provision for asylum seekers held on the island.

The spokeswoman said that IHMS, the service provider contracted by the Australian government to supply medical provision to asylum seekers in detention on Nauru, had "adequate" medical supplies and that the government of Nauru was in the process of sourcing replacement medical stock for the hospital.

Critics of the government's resettlement programme, which sees all asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat since 19 July sent offshore, labelled the transfer a "shameful election stunt".

Ian Rintoul, a spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, said: "There are no proper facilities on Nauru for anyone, let alone families and children. The new arrivals are being placed in an isolated, bulldozed area with nothing but very hastily erected tents. You don't need any imagination to understand the difficulties of trying to care for children in the unbearable conditions on Nauru.

"It is a reckless, and desperate move by the immigration minister. There have been weekly transfers of asylum seekers from Nauru to Australia because detainees cannot get proper medical treatment on Nauru."

A spokesman for Diac defended the transfer, saying there were no exceptions for children or families. He said: "This latest transfer to Nauru sends the clearest possible message that coming to Australia by boat is not the way to gain Australian residency and children or family groups will not be exempted from transfer."